It Must Be OK - It's Sugar-Free! Wrong!

A very brief post to emphasise an important point.

When we as diabetics are choosing foods for the menu or checking the ingredients of a recipe, sugar should be treated as just another carbohydrate. It is more concentrated than most carbs but my meter has repeatedly shown me it is the total carbs that count, not just the sugar content, when I test my blood glucose after eating.

Food products which are marketed as sugar-free are very rarely carbohydrate-free. In fact, more often than not they have just as many carbs as the sugared versions. I encountered a classic example of this a couple of days ago when I saw a large display in my local Aldi store promoting 'healthy' sugar-free products. 

These are photos of just some of the products. Sorry about the smart-phone quality of the pics; the carb counts are clear enough. I'll let them prove my point.

99.5% Sugar-free Shortbread = 67.9% carbohydrates

 

99.5% Sugar-free Chocolate Digestive Biscuits = 61.3% carbohydrates

99.5% Sugar-free Wafer Biscuits = 62.4% carbohydrates

99.5% No Added Sugar Dark Chocolate = 57% carbohydrates

 

The piece-de-resistance. Sugar-free Mixed Fruit Drops:

  

I could not believe this one when I turned the can over. There was no added sugar, so it must be healthier than other fruit drops...yeah, right. 

It is 93% carbohydrates.

  

Always read those labels, folks.

Cheers, Alan, T2, Australia.
Everything in Moderation - Except Laughter